Money $marts: The imperfect vs. the perfect

Citizen Contributor,GERRY KRAMER

4:23 PM, Nov 25, 2013

Obamacare is a political disaster of historical proportions, damaging the credibility of the president and the progressive elites that supported this unforeseen monument to hubris and unobtainable utopian perfection.

We know its bad when the legislation’s legacy sobriquet, “Obamacare,” is being replaced everywhere — new hand-held picket signs — by the more official “Affordable Care Act.” This is one legacy that they would rather not be.

Much more important, however, is the economic harm inflicted on millions of American families as health insurance policies are cancelled because they don’t include coverage for items the bureaucrats deemed necessary — like maternity for all regardless of age — or contain big premium boosts with huge deductibles that make plans unaffordable. Meanwhile, politicians and their bureaucratic staff deemed to be “official” are exempt from Obamacare rules. Think George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”: “all men are created equal — but some are more equal than others.”

The underlying essential philosophy here is that a few intelligent people with seemingly good intentions could design a health care/insurance system for 310 million people without it having unintended consequences — unless lying about them is part of the plan. The design of such a plan might have initial problems, but over time it could be tweaked to perfection ensuring a net benefit to society.

To paraphrase one academic Obamacare architect: “It doesn’t matter if a small number, say 5 percent, of families get hurt, society as a whole benefits.” Any bets on how loud the planner would yell if he were one of the 5 percent collateral damage? By the way, contrary to media spin, Obamacare rules are negatively affecting millions of plans supposedly immune or grandfathered. More than half the plans currently in place will eventually be hit with changes — all bad.

We have been doing this kind of reform for many years now. Our elected politicians have come to believe they possess the ability to manage society to the good of all. “Reform” never involves dismantling regulations or repealing bad ones. Rather, it requires whole new structures on top of or intermingled with old ones. It represents a fundamental distrust of the marketplace, a belief that free markets are imperfect while government can create an envisioned perfect society as long as all conform to the rules of the anointed visionaries. Free markets providing the needs of society, creating its own perfection, is impossible. A perfectly planned society will always be better than an imperfectly unplanned market based one according to the planners; perfect socialism is better than imperfect capitalism.

But the comparison is wrong. It is planned society perfection that is impossible while free markets with understood rules of behavior will move toward perfection, providing society members with everything they need while not encroaching on their freedom. History has shown this to be true. Free market societies have always provided more benefits than planned ones until the planners gain control.

Next week: Set them free; what a free market healthcare system would look like and deliver.